Success Stories

Even when Maria Brown was ready to give up on herself, the faculty and staff at Cuyamaca College refused to give up on her. Brown, 26, will be transferring to San Diego State University this fall with an Associate in Arts for Transfer (AA-T) degree in sociology.

The recent San Bernardino Valley College graduate is the first in her family to earn a diploma and she has shown the rest of her extended family, as well, that getting a college education is possible – even if you are undocumented, as is Campos.

Ken Fitzgerald left the Bay Area for Shasta to sell cars almost 10 years ago. He said he was successful at it, but something was missing. He knew there was more to life than watching customers kick the tires. He also knew that completing his college education was the right path.

Now, with a newly minted Associate in Arts for Transfer (AA-T) degree in communication studies from Shasta College, Fitzgerald is headed to California State University, Chico in the fall.

Marco Gomez wanted to be more active on the Los Medanos College campus. He figured since he spent so much time in classes he might as well get involved in campus life. As a student ambassador, the 21-year-old Antioch resident worked closely with the Los Medanos College counseling team and they informed the budding psychologist that he was one class away from qualifying to graduate with an Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) in psychology.

Scot Hamilton’s Associate Degree for Transfer in sociology fulfilled a promise he made to his mother years ago – to get a college education and provide a better life for his family.

Hamilton, 40, went back to school in his late 30s while rehabilitating from a construction accident and graduated from Lake Tahoe Community College with an Associate in Arts for Transfer (AA-T) degree that guaranteed him a spot at California State University, Sacramento where he’s a junior sociology major.

As a teen, Nathan Martinez went through cancer treatments that basically consumed his freshman and sophomores years at Union Mine High School in the small Sierra Foothill town of El Dorado. But he said art therapy in the hospital as well as at home helped him deal with depression and he made a full recovery.

Now, almost a decade later and cancer-free, the Folsom Lake College graduate is attending California State University, Sacramento as a psychology major who wants to give back to other young cancer patients by providing them with art therapy and taking their minds off of treatments.